Maintaining data availability, from being able to remotely access e-mail to being able to remotely access files on a hard drive, has been a challenge for many years. Various networking solutions for connecting diverse computing equipment have been developed in order to satisfy the needs for data availability. Most recently, wireless networks have undergone development such that continuous data availability may be provided to any number of computing devices without requiring a physical connection to a network. The continuous data availability provided by wireless networks has enabled innovation in the form of a growing list of wireless devices and services that may be offered.
Some services now being provided through wireless networks include streaming media and voice over internet protocol (VOIP), both of which require large amounts of bandwidth for extended periods of time. In a wireless environment each of these services that provide periodic flows of data must compete for bandwidth and transmission time with other services that may not be as time sensitive, such as e-mail. Quality of Service (QoS) generally refers to the probability of a packet of data succeeding in passing between two points or nodes in a network with low latencies. Therefore, a need exists to improve the QoS for services such as streaming media and VOIP when contentions with other less time sensitive services may occur, especially in decentralized or wireless networks.